Hellish Sumac roots and suckers. I will defeat them!!!

Who would think that something so pretty could be so evil. Sumac Trees are very invasive. The first thing I did when we took over the house was to cut down the sumac and wage a losing battle with the suckers ever since. I have read constantly looking for tips to get rid of them. I would NEVER use Roundup, but even that doesn't really work. They are working their way into my gardens and I'm panicking a bit. There was even a small two foot sumac tree in the shed!! So last night I hit Google again and started reading about the much hated sumac. I hit the mother lode. Well for heaven's sake. The suckers come up from horizontal thick woody roots called rhizomes. And they run under the soil at about four to six inches. Mark already used the bobcat to dig out the sumac stump and yank out whatever roots he could grab. Here is the spot where it was. I've started tidying it up a bit.

Today I started pulling and digging with my pitchfork. This is a spot I was able to literally tear a big rhizome / root right up and out of the ground. Got about three feet intact. Little sucker shoots all over it. It's no wonder you can't win without digging the root. The little baby's are forming the whole length of the root. 

So it will be a pain but whenever I get a sucker, I am going to follow the roots as far as I can with the pitchfork and yank those monsters right out of the ground!! 

                                              I WILL TRIUMPH!!!

While waiting for wood chips, I'll work on the front of the house.

This is a picture of the garden at the front of the house before Mark dug it up for me. 

And as I'll use any excuse to put in a bobcat picture, here is Mark digging everything out of the front bed again.  

I spent all day clearing all the rocks, lumps and roots of the invasive plants like English Ivy and Creeping Jenny out of the front bed. I then smoothed it all down level again. I climbed under the Rhodo and started pruning. It is an old Rhodo and unless you got underneath and looked inside you couldn't see that there were a lot of curly scrawny branches that had been curling trying to get to the light. Branches were rubbing on each other. You know...typical old Rhodo stuff. So I gave it a real harsh haircut. There will be a lot more light coming through the tree to the right hand side where it was snuggled so close to the shrubs beside it, it was petty bare on that side. I also raised up the lower level which made it look more even instead of bare on the one side. I am really pleased with it. 

With the bed temporarily empty, Amanda and I were able to get back there and scrub, and do spider removal...okay I did that cuz they creep her out. We then put her lavender bush there so it wouldn't look so bare. 

And finally a closeup of the Rhodo in its full glory. I put some wood chips under it. The bed will be full of them eventually. 

Back to Eden Garden...Part 3...removal of the lawn and spreading manure.

Today, we made a LOT of progress. Every muscle in my body hurts. My feet hurt and the fingernail I slammed on a railway tie while holding another is most unpleasant. I can feel my heartbeat. Suck it up Erin. I have so many lovely photos to share with you!! Today was lawn removal and manure spreading. I helped using the wonderful potato fork that belonged to my grandfather. My dad gave it to me and it is truly the most valuable tool I've ever used.

The pictures:

Mark moving manure to the garden.

I love this picture. I tell people that I would like to have a tractor and put it on the lawn so that everyone could gaze at it's beauty. What do you think? 

You know how I love a steaming manure pile. 

Look how beautiful that earth looks. Mark is taking the lawn to his place to compost. Win, win.

A little bit of everything happening here. 

Mark filling in the enormous hole left by the willow. 

And...more manure. 

Another tractor picture. 

Beginning to see the garden taking shape. 

My mom dropped by for a look. She's all set. Water bottle and rubber shoes!!

A late afternoon view from my own back yard. Watching the dream of a large garden happening before my eyes. 

Almost done with the manure. Then comes the wood chip layer. 

You can see the area to the left that Mark excavated for a bit of a patio for Noel and Amanda. All in all it was a wonderful day of much hard work...and satisfaction. 

The recipe I'm using for my Back to Eden garden is :

4 inches of manure first layer

4 inches of wood chips second layer

A thin layer, 2 inches or so, of manure for the top layer

Back to Eden Garden...Part 2...Heavy machinery involved in tree andgarden removal.

The best decision I've ever made was to bring in Mark Benson and his heavy machinery to clear out the gardens, trees and lawn. Normally to build a BTE garden you just put down newspapers rather than remove the lawn. In our area there is really no lawn. Just lots of weeds and buttercups. In solid, rock hard clay. In addition, the yard was full of large dips and bumps, so this will get rid of most of the weeds and level everything out. So let's proceed!!

Horse manure being dumped in the driveway. 

Isn't that Bobcat the coolest thing you've ever seen! It is keeping the manure tidy.

Removal of the front garden. This will just be edged and replanted. Something a bit simpler and easier to keep up. 

Removal of the cedars at the side we will use to get in and out of the back for this project. I think it will visibly brighten up the front of the house. And the neighbours house. 

Greenery going into the huge trailer with hydraulics. It is also an unbelievable piece of machinery. I am completely envious. 

The big surprise of the day was the removal of the willow root. I believe this tree only went in about three years ago? There were no horizontal roots. All straight down. Mark had to dig down about five feet to get the root ball out. You can see in the next photo our 36 year old willow tree. You can only imagine how much I am dreading that tree dying some day and what it will be like to remove.

The beginning of lawn removal. We start again tomorrow morning. I'm pretty exhausted. 

If you would like to contact the man behind the machinery to help you with your gardens and you live on the Saanich Peninsula, his name is Mark Benson. If you leave me a comment, I can put you in touch. 

Back to Eden Garden...Part 1...The before pictures and the first trees cut.

The first trees come down.